Will Stephen Curry Cost Keith Smart His Job?

Some of the Bay Area media are convinced that when Keith Smart loses his coaching gig, it’ll be because of the strained relationship between him and his young point guard. From CSN: “When Warriors owner Joe Lacob says publicly at the end of the season he’s not bringing back Keith Smart as coach — which seems very much a foregone conclusion at this point — he’ll certainly have some reasons. Right at the top of the list will be Smart’s relationship with second-year point guard Stephen Curry. There is no feud, no profanity-laced shouting matches or even any dislike, really. There’s not even really a ‘problem.’ But something’s amiss between the two. If you’ve been watching the Warriors all season long you’ve seen it. To say Smart has had Curry on a shorter leash than Don Nelson did a year ago would be an understatement. You’d have to be watching a different game to not notice all those times Smart showed his frustration after a Curry mistake or misplay, which was typically followed with Acie Law at the scorer’s table. Curry is averaging just 33 minutes per game this season compared with last year when he averaged 36.2 minutes per game. But that tells only a sliver of the story.”